Tommy Sheppard

Community Renewal Scotland

I had a great time meeting the folks at Community Renewal Scotland. Sheila McWhirter, Sean Connor and Archie Lowe took me through all the work they are doing across East Edinburgh and the projects specifically focused on Magdalene and Bingham.

They have a holistic approach which involves employability services for all but also a focus on supporting young people into employment and other positive outcomes such as training, education or volunteering. They have a Health Case Manager who offers individually tailored support from counselling to referrals. They also work with communities, listening to what they want and then helping people connect and become active and find ways to achieve change. This is what they have been doing in Magdalene and Bingham and they are now looking at how to build on the response from the community.

We then went on a mini tour meeting Sandra Millar, Sandra Seaton, Corrine Griffiths and Linda McCrudden at the Bingham Community Centre where they were busy making sandwiches for the kids. I managed to have a good chat about the work they are doing and their plans for the future even with over 20 kids running around. They also organise the Bingham & District 50 Plus Project which tries to address issues of isolation for older people – I am hoping to get down to visit that later in the month.

From there we went to Magdalene Community Centre and met Rab Hogg Jnr and Susan Ferguson who are doing a power of work with young people in the area. Their youth strategy project involves a year-long programme with local kids, building team-working skills and encouraging self-belief. This leads to an outward bound week away that gives confidence and skills. They also run regular drop-in sessions.

We ended up in the magnificent Magdalene Community Garden which is only a year old but full of fresh produce. Liz McMahon showed me round plots bursting with beetroot, potatoes, sprouts and much more. I then chatted to Lisa Goddard, Jodie Crozier and Krystal McMahon about how much the garden has made a difference to the area, the sense of community and improved the space which was just a patch of grass before. I even got to try the strawberries!

About the author

Born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland in 1959, Tommy was educated at a local grammar school and, equipped with the requisite A levels, moved to Scotland to study medicine at Aberdeen University. He graduated with a degree in politics and sociology – the start of a lifelong interest in politics.

He returned to Scotland in 1993 and established the Stand Comedy Club in 1995, which he started as a hobby and built into a successful business. Tommy lives in Minto Street with his partner Kate and cocker spaniel Henry.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more farcical, yesterday happened. Government ministers spent the weekend assuring us the vote planned for today would go ahead. Some were even claiming the PM might win it (it’s nearly Christmas after all, the season of miracles). Even late yesterday morning the Downing St press office were still telling us the vote was going ahead, while the PM was h...

It’s been a little while since I've written a blog on Brexit. Things are now moving quite quickly so I thought it might be helpful for me to share a few of my thoughts on where we are.The proposal put forward by Theresa May last week is not a good one and not one I can support. While the SNP Scottish government remain of the view that the best option for Scotland would be to remain in the European...

The budget was last week. Did you notice? As squibs go, this one was pretty damp. We’ll be debating the detail in the finance bill next week but the real story is one of indifference and missed opportunity.Since the 2008 crash, governments across the western world have seen their revenues unable to meet spending. In the US and most European countries the response was to use the power and funds of ...